No. 2 Duke didn’t just beat No.
8 Tennessee in an exhibition game. The Blue Devils steamrolled the Volunteers, rolling to a 101-64 win behind a performance that showed off depth, defense and a roster that kept coming at Tennessee in waves.
Six Duke players finished in double figures, with Deron Rippey Jr. and John Blackwell leading the way. Patrick Ngongba II controlled the glass, Cayden Boozer handed out six assists and Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje added three blocks as Duke made its case against the preseason No. 8 team.
The opening minutes set the tone fast. Dame Sarr opened the scoring for Duke with a layup and a fast-break alley-oop, while Tennessee mustered only two free throws and opened 0-for-5 from the field, missing three 3-pointers along the way.
Duke turned that stretch into a 15-0 burst, with Ngongba knocking down two free throws for a 6-2 edge just over two minutes in, Blackwell drilling a 3-pointer and Rippey connecting from deep after checking in at the first media timeout. The Volunteers also coughed up three turnovers in a four-minute span as Duke’s pressure kept them off balance.
Ames Dai Dai finally got Tennessee on the board from the field, but by then Ngongba had already added a layup and a transition 3-pointer. Six minutes into the game, Duke was ahead 17-4.
The Blue Devils kept stretching the margin by attacking the glass and cashing in second chances. After Bryson Howard missed a fast-break corner 3, Boumtje Boumtje fought for the rebound and muscled in two more points to make it 22-6.
From there, Duke settled in a bit after the early sprint, but the pressure never let up. Sarr drew contact and headed to the line, Sebastian Wilkins forced another stoppage when Jalen Haralson fouled him, and Tennessee’s guard missed both free throws.
Ngongba and Boumtje Boumtje kept working inside, while Wilkins buried a corner 3 that barely touched the net. During the timeout, the Cameron Crazies broke into “Shots” for him, and Wilkins continued to help in ways that went beyond scoring, with improved rebounding and passing on display.
With just under eight minutes left in the half, Duke had pushed the lead to 38-14. The Blue Devils also spent plenty of time at the foul line and made the most of it, going 13-for-13 in the first half.
Even when the scoring cooled late in the period, Duke still stacked possessions the hard way. One sequence before halftime had four blue-and-white players under the basket fighting for a rebound, with Blackwell eventually securing it, Sarr launching a wide-open 3 on the other end and Ngongba finishing the stand with a block. The offense wasn’t always clean, but the ball movement and shotmaking kept the crowd entertained.
The Cameron Crazies were loud all night, including plenty who spent the night in tents to get their seats. They heckled Tennessee players and made their approval known from Section 17 as Duke put on a preseason showcase.
The second half brought more of the same. Duke came out with a 3-point jumper, a layup and a fast-break dunk in quick order, and with more than 15 minutes left the Blue Devils were already up 70-38.
Rippey then added a steal and a thunderous finish in transition to make it 74-40. Sarr sliced through the defense for another layup to push the margin to 81-46, and Boumtje Boumtje followed with a 3 before play briefly stopped for a Tennessee player’s bloody nose. The score was 86-48 at that point, and the Volunteers never found a way to make the game competitive again.
Tennessee finished shooting 34% from the field and managed only 16 points in the paint. Duke cleared 100 points with more than a minute to go, and the crowd got one more look at the bench as Nick Arnold, Jacob Theodosiou and Brock Davis all entered the game.
The Blue Devils weren’t spotless. They turned it over 10 times and gave up nine offensive rebounds, and there were a few wild passes and out-of-bounds mistakes mixed in. But the size of the lead, the energy and the sheer force of Duke’s performance made those flaws easy to overlook.
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